Expectations for the G7 were not high, but the outcome was even worse than expected. For the first time ever, the G7 ended without a joint statement, and with Trump lashing out at Canada and the EU. The summit in North Korea, on the other hand, ended with all smiles and a joint statement promising peace, denuclearisation and security.

The Canadian government has announced that it will not be allowing Venezuelan expats the right to vote in the upcoming Presidential election in Venezuela. Almost immediately, Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza attacked the decision and pleaded with the government to reconsider.

The spectacle of celebrations for the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem on Monday 14 May stood in stark contrast with the bloodshed in Gaza, where on the same day, 59 Palestinian demonstrators were killed and more than 2,700 injured by Israeli snipers. As we stated in a previous article, the mass resistance movement by Palestinians in Gaza for the right of return for the Palestinian refugees of 1948, and against the 12-year-blockade by Israel, has been growing despite the harshest repression by the Israeli Army.

Seven prominent youth and trade union activists have been disappeared in Karachi by the Army and Sindh Rangers, a paramilitary state department notorious for extra-judicial killings. Nobody has been told about their whereabouts so far and no case has been registered against them.

We present the International Marxist Tendency's world perspectives for 2018: constituting our analysis of the current situation in world politics, and predictions about where we are headed. This draft document will be discussed and finalised at the IMT's 2018 World Congress in Turin. It was written in the first few months of this year, and although some of the events described have developed since, these developments only further confirm our overarching analysis of the world situation.

Teachers in West Virginia have successfully shut down every school in the state with a rolling wave of strikes, and have won a 5 percent increase in wages. Inspired by events in West Virginia, Oklahoma teachers are now taking to the same road of class struggle in a process that has the potential to spread like a wildfire.

In the last week, US President, Donald Trump announced his intention to raise tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, threatening to start a dangerous trade war with the rest of the world. This could plunge the world economy into another deep slump.

After all the fuss, noisy propaganda and manoeuvres at the United Nations, the so-called Syrian ceasefire has broken down suddenly, shamefully and irrevocably. In reality it was an abortion that was dead even before it was born.

On June 8th and 9th, the G7 will meet in the small town of La Malbaie, Quebec. For this occasion, our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau will welcome United States President, Donald Trump, into the country for the first time. This racist, misogynist billionaire will be united with Trudeau and leaders from five of the most powerful capitalist nations on the face of the planet to make decisions that will have a direct impact on the lives of billions of poor people around the world. In this situation, Trudeau has the audacity to promise a “progressive agenda” for this meeting with Trump and the other leaders of major capitalist powers! It is clear that whatever decisions come out of the G7, the results will not be in our favour. It will be the workers and youth who will pay and it is therefore our duty to fight the G7 as a part of our struggle against the capitalist system in general.

Waves of heroic protests have spread rapidly to towns and cities throughout Iran over the past two weeks. This was a spontaneous eruption of rage by the lower-middle-class and working-class youth against poverty, rising prices and destitution, as well as against the wealth and corruption of the Iranian elite – particularly the clerical establishment. It is estimated that 21 people have been killed in the protests so far and over 1,700 arrested. Immediately, Western leaders from Washington to London raised a chorus defending the human rights of the Iranian people.